Let’s be honest here, attending a sporting event or a concert is not a cheap experience when you have a family. You have your ticket, which can sometimes seem a rip off because all you did was see your team get flogged. You have the food, which is the same thing you can buy from your supermarket for half the price and get more in it! And just to rub salt into the wound your child is screaming for their favorite players guernsey which costs more than your ticket did in the first place. Ouch.

If that is not painful enough, well more bad news is on the horizon, prices of Adelaide Oval food are set to go up again. Channel Seven is even reporting that we will have the most expensive pies in the nation, not even the humble footy pie is spared in these dark times. Seven has also posted a handy graph detailing the costs compared to other stadiums, you can read the report here.

Now I know some of you who are reading this may not have children or even a partner and may be shouting at the screen saying ‘It’s easy! You just need to budget’. I understand what you are saying and a budget is important, but you have to think of the costs a family pays that others don’t have such as:

• School Fees
• Sport Fees
• Child Care Fees
• Extra Curricular Activities (Music)
• Increased Health Cover
• Increased Food Bills

Anyway you look at it this it is a lot of money and if you have 2 children you have to in some cases double this. I admit there are ways you can make a day out cheaper, in fact you can read the tips I wrote in a post about it here, but sometimes even that isn’t enough.

Now some of you may be wondering what does my opinion have anything to do with it when I am uni student? Well honestly, I know how important events like sports and concerts are to a community. For example, if people don’t attend events we run the risk of loosing the event permanently as the organisers can’t make profit. Want proof? Read this article about the Gaming and Popculture event SupaNova, where the organisers essentially questioned the people of Adelaide if they really wanted the event or not. Loosing events like these hurts tourism which flows onto to affect the economy and jobs and we the public loose an experience.

Look to make a long story short, when people can’t attend such events because of costs it always makes me sad, because they missed out on seeing what potentially makes them happiest. Call me a dreamer if you must, but one day I hope to see sport, concerts and other events alike become cheaper so more can experience the joy of celebrating together.